London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

A review is to be launched into the City’s relationship with the EU as Britain seeks to forge new links in Europe.

Foreign Secretary William Hague today published plans for six reports on the impact of Britain’s EU membership to be published by next summer.

They are expected to examine the effect of EU membership on the single market and UK taxation policy, health policy, foreign affairs, food safety, international development and animal welfare. The report on the Square Mile will be in a batch of later reports which will eventually total 32.

In a speech in Berlin, Mr Hague said: “We need to look afresh at some of the things the EU does. They have to make sense to our voters.

“That is why, over the next two years, the British Government will be reviewing what the EU does and how it affects us in the United Kingdom: a constructive and serious British contribution to the public debate across Europe about how the EU can be reformed, modernised and improved.”

The Foreign Secretary also warned that British disillusionment with the European Union is the “deepest it has ever been”. He argued that European leaders must allow powers to “flow back” to nation states, as well as having different levels of membership.